After immigrating to the
U.S. in the mid-1940s and jumping ship in Hoboken, N.J., Leclercq moved into a
boarding house on the bottom floor of a Brooklyn, N.Y. brownstone. Upstairs lived
a Spanish family with a daughter.

Leclercq would go on to marry that daughter, and she would give
birth to his son.

And as a young child, that son, also named Pierre Leclercq,
would quickly be introduced to his father's business at the elder Pierre's
bakery, The International in New Rochelle, working on the weekends and summer
vacations.

"First thing I did when we got there was to light the wood-burning
ovens," the younger Leclercq remembers. He's now 63 and Huntsville Country Club's executive chef. "We used to go to work at nine
at night and bake all night. And then whenever we'd finish early in the
morning, we'd take a nap. My father would lie on the wooden table, and I'd
crawl on top of the sacks of flour stacked real high and go to sleep. Then we'd
load the van up and go all over New York delivering bread to all the
restaurants. That's how I grew up."

The youth would go on forge a notable culinary career, with
stops including East Hampton's Buoy Eleven from 1975 to 1980, where glitterati
clientele included Farrah Fawcett, Marlo Thomas, Truman Capote and Woody Allen.

In 1983, Leclercq made his way to New Orleans lakefront
restaurant Sportsman's Paradise.

"We used to buy the shrimp right off the boat," Leclercq
says. On a recent afternoon, he's sporting a chef's hat and a bushy mustache, and seated at a table in HCC's chandeliered ballroom. "There's no place like New Orleans for food. It's the
best."

Pierre worked for about 13 years in the Big Easy, including
a prime gig at the New Orleans Marriott's 41st floor restaurant
which overlooked the Mississippi River and French Quarter, which led to gigs at
other Marriott locations including Atlanta, Tampa and Nagoya, Japan.

And Huntsville.

I ask Leclercq to name three things he always keeps in his
home fridge.

"Tasso ham. I use it in the vegetables. Put it in gumbo. Eat
with eggs and stuff like that. Etouffee. It's got a nice flavor too it, smoky,
and a little bit of spice.

"I buy jumbo lump crabmeat in the can and we use it to make
salads or crab cakes.

"I really like cheeses. At night, when I have a glass of
wine and assorted cheeses. I like smoked Gouda. A nice Swiss cheese. Fontina
cheese, goat cheese."

After several other Rocket City executive chef jobs over the
last 12 years, including the Heritage Club, Leclercq took over at Huntsville Country
Club this spring. He's added items such as a shrimp po boy, Portobello mushroom
burger and summer salad with spinach and strawberries to the downstairs 19th
Hole Grillroom's menu.